Final Fantasy XIV

It’s not every day that a mass multiplayer online game gets a do-over, but that’s what happened over the past 33 months with Final Fantasy XIV. An effort like that is unprecedented, but it was sparked by an underwhelming debut in 2010. Dubbed A Realm Reborn, the reboot has gained traction since its re-release last year, becoming the largest MMO of its kind coming out of Japan. It’s also gotten a better reception.

Now the game is coming to the PlayStation 4. I had a chance to check it out earlier this month. Here are a few quick thoughts:

Life inFinal Fantasy XIV starts like this: You create a character by selecting a race (There are five playable so far.) They are all diverse from the short Lalafell to the hulking Roegadyn. From there, you can customize the hair, face, height and other characteristics such as moustaches and markings. There’s enough choices to make each avatar distinct.

Afterward, you’ll face your most important choice. You have to be a disciple of one category — war (melee combat), magic (spell casters), land (I’m assuming farming) and hand (crafting) — and this impacts how you play the game. From there, you can get more specific. Disciples of War can have choose from classes such as gladiator, pugilist, archer and lancer. Disciples of Magic have fewer choices, deciding between thermaturgy and conjurer. As for the other disciplines, I didn’t explore them much, but I’ve been told that they’re geared toward crafting.

Once you pick the extranous details such as birthday and sign, you finally make the second-most important decision when it comes to exploring the land of Eorzea. You choose between starting cities such as Gridania and Ul’dah. This determines how your story begins.